Language:
English
Year of publication:
2013
Titel der Quelle:
Judaica Latinoamericana; estudios histórico-sociales
Angaben zur Quelle:
7 (2013) 215-236
Keywords:
Jews Agriculture
;
Jewish refugees
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews
Abstract:
In 1937-38, the Refugee Economic Corporation (founded by leading members of the American Joint Distribution Committee in New York) bought 50,000 acres of land in Costa Rica in order to establish a colony for Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. They did it under the assumption that Costa Rica would favor the settlement of Jewish refugees in agricultural colonies. The project did not prosper due to the restrictive immigration policy of Costa Rica's government in regard to Jews, and a growing atmosphere of hostility toward them. The daily newspaper "Diario de Costa Rica", for example, considered the arrival of 157 Polish Jews between 1936-39 as a "scandalous flooding of Costa Rica with Jews". Merchants complained about the disloyal competition of Polish Jewish peddlers, immigrants who had been in the country since 1917. Pressured by public opinion, the government issued only tourist visas to Jewish applicants or denied them altogether. The newcomers were prohibited from engaging in commerce and trade. In addition, the atmosphere of hatred toward Jews was fueled by the propaganda of the antisemitic organization Unión Patriótica Costarricence. In December 1938, a ship with 28 Jewish refugees arrived in Costa Rica, and the authorities refused to allow them into the country. In September 1939, the government denied entry to six Jewish refugees in transit to the USA and Guatemala. Concludes that "Costa Rica was guilty of extraordinary hostility toward Jewish victims of the Nazis, and did nothing to rescue them".
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